WILD FLOWER SOUL

Thanks to plentiful Oregon varieties — which taste extra spicy and crisp — earlier this year I renewed my love for tiny red radishes, sliced raw into small coins and tossed in salads or scattered over rice. So for lunch one afternoon, I fried two cups of soaked + boiled chickpeas in a few tablespoons of butter, tomato paste and a minced shallot, and finished with cumin, lime juice, garlic, hot sauce, minced parsley and leftover diced golden beets. A friend — who claimed to have a lifelong aversion to chickpeas — said that he actually really loved these. The key is to get the chickpeas crispy in the pan by frying them at medium/high heat, and then deglaze with a little white wine or lime juice to create a sheer sauce. Then they won’t taste mealy or mushy (the worst). I ate my warm chickpeas over a chilled spinach salad dressed with mustard and vinegar and those little kicky radishes.